kindredlinks | Deerington: app.

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Raven Branwen
Canon: RWBY
Canon Point: post-v7

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Left shoulder, design
Current Health/Status: Alive and well
Age: ~40
Species: Human

Content Warnings: Violence, murder, child abandonment

History: RWBY / Raven Branwen

Personality:
“The truth is that truth is hard to come by.”

Intelligent, perceptive, and cutthroat, Raven is the notorious leader of the Branwen tribe of nomadic bandits and thieves that terrorize the monster-infested wilds of Anima, raiding caravans and looting villages to make their own living. Her education as a professional Huntress has lent her the skill and the strength (but not the ethos) of the protectors of Remnant. She lives by the maxim of the tribe that raised her: the weak die and the strong live, and she believes down to her very core that she must be the smartest, strongest, and cleverest around in order for her and her people to survive in a doomed world. Though she proclaims that her goal is to protect her family, her definition of that word may be a tad skewed. Her daughter, her husband, her twin brother - she abandoned them all, choosing instead to live a reclusive life among her fellow tribesmen, her location a mystery. Why?

Because lost in the forest was where Raven felt safest.

In fact, so many of Raven’s actions since her time at Beacon Academy have been motivated by fear, as reluctant as she is to admit that even to herself. She’ll claim that she is only being smart; she is looking at the information in front of her and making a choice to refuse to participate in a hopeless war. It isn’t hard to see through her, however. Even Professor Lionheart, who turned on his own academy and joined Salem’s forces out of sheer cowardice, questions just who she’s trying to convince when Raven assures him that he is making the right decision to save his hide. Yang easily recognizes that it was Raven’s fear of Salem that motivated Raven’s decision to abandon her family members, even later throwing them right into Salem’s trap as a distraction while Raven made her getaway.

Raven has thoroughly convinced herself of her own righteousness, however. She knows that she isn’t a good person - she is a bandit, after all - but she believes that she is a smart person who is making the right calls. She even goes so far as to justify her murder of the previous Spring Maiden by couching it in language of mercy, claiming that her predecessor was too scared and too weak to survive in a world where she would only be hunted down by Salem. Raven simply did what needed to be done, and she takes pride in her willingness to do hard, violent, and difficult things in the face of fear when no one else seems to have the guts. For those she cares about, she gives them a choice, too: join her, or stay with them. Raven is under no obligation to play nice if they make the wrong one. They had their chance.

The only time Raven shows an ounce of shame or regret about her actions is when Yang vocally expresses her disappointment in her mother. Yang points out that Raven is quick to throw others, even family, in harm’s way to benefit herself - and while Raven may be powerful, her propensity to run from what she is most afraid of keeps her from being strong. These were chilling words to say to a woman who values strength above all else, and who feels that it is only strength that will keep her from succumbing to Salem. For the first time since abandoning her, Raven apologizes to Yang. Yet, when she yields the prized Relic of Knowledge to Yang and disappears, it remains in question whether Raven’s tears were an acknowledgment of her daughter’s pain and show of strength in making a hard choice... or if she is simply running away, humiliated, to hide yet again. Raven is unlikely to admit either case.

Raven often mocks Qrow and team RWBY’s blind faith in their friends and allies, but just like RWBY, Raven was also once part of a close-knit team. Raven and Qrow were originally sent by their tribe to Beacon Academy to learn to kill Huntsmen, but at some point that plan was put on indefinite hold after the twins met Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long. Not much is known about team STRQ’s time at Beacon, but it is clear that the other team members must have inexorably charmed the Branwen twins. Raven married Taiyang, after all, and frequently worried about Summer’s naivety and savior complex to the point of viciously lecturing Summer for getting into danger while trying to play the hero. Qrow, too, all but abandoned his tribe to instead follow Huntsman ideals and pledged his life to Ozpin’s cause. Taiyang describes the Raven he knew as a passionate yet complicated woman, but one who would fight and defend what she believed was right no matter the cost. Qrow asserts that he and Raven both willingly volunteered to work alongside Ozpin in his shadow war against Salem, accepting his magic so they could transform into birds and work as his spies.

One wonders, then, what Raven learned about Ozpin and Salem all those years ago that changed her mind. Raven herself is vague on the matter, only saying that the truths she uncovered about the world were horrifying, and now she knows for a fact that Salem cannot be stopped or reasoned with. Her only recourse - her only option to survive - was to leave it all behind while she still could. Taiyang says that it was Raven who tore team STRQ apart, and yet Raven seems strangely unable to let her old life go. She is shown to be following both Yang and Qrow in her bird form, keeping tabs on them as her daughter grew. She saved her daughter from death once, though with a warning that it would not happen again. She kept in contact with Qrow, acting aloof while they continually rebuffed one another’s offers to return to Ozpin or return to the tribe. Her vocal disgust thinly veils the disappointment on her face when Yang twice declines Raven's advice to leave Qrow and Ozpin and her offer start their mother-daughter relationship afresh among the tribe. Raven knows that Qrow was scheming to attack the Branwen tribe - incidentally leading Salem’s minions right to their encampment - and though Raven ruthlessly demanded her brother's death as payment for working with Salem's lot, her feelings of hurt and betrayal are nevertheless palpable when she asks Qrow whether they were ever truly family.

For all that she projects an image of the shrewd and pragmatic bandit leader, moments like these show that Raven isn’t totally cold-hearted, nor has she completely forgotten her family in the course of leaving them behind. The close emotional bonds that she forms are both her greatest strength - literally, as the basis of her Semblance, Kindred Link - and her greatest vulnerability. For a woman who was terrified of what the world had become, who knew that an unstoppable enemy was waiting for them there on the horizon, weakness was not an option. Perhaps Raven simply couldn’t stomach the idea of having a blood family that she truly loved, knowing that she would inevitably lose them to an insurmountable evil. Maybe she hated the idea of Yang someday following in her footsteps, wasting her life in an unwinnable war just like Raven and her foolish brother. Whatever the reasoning, Raven harbors deeply seated feelings of resentment, abandonment, and betrayal of her own, disgusted that no one in her family will heed her warnings and join her in making the smart choices, yet too stubborn to understand how or why team RWBY and Qrow’s loyalty and devotion to friends and family motivates them to continue fighting against a force of darkness that promises to destroy the world.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:

Aura: The manifestation of one’s soul, which can be used defensively and offensively by those who learn to activate and wield it. Aura acts as a barrier to heal minor injury and limit damage from physical attacks, which allows the user to fight and train with live weapons without sustaining mortal wounds. Aura is a limited resource which decreases each time it is used to block an attack. Once one’s Aura “breaks,” the user can be injured like any other human. Aura recharges with rest.
Kindred Link: Raven’s Semblance, a “personal superpower” which is powered by Aura. Raven can use her Semblance to open a portal between herself and someone she has emotionally bonded to. Often, but not always, she opens these portals with a slash of her sword. Other people can travel through the portal to the person on the other side, as long as she holds it open for them. Thus far, Raven is confirmed to have formed links with a select few: Taiyang Xiao Long, her estranged husband; Yang Xiao Long, her daughter; Qrow Branwen, her twin brother; and Vernal (deceased), her companion and decoy as Spring Maiden.
- Warp: Through Kindred Link, Raven will also be able to perceive very strong emotions from those she is bonded to, even over a distance (this has been okayed by their players). She may even be affected by those emotions herself, experiencing their fear, anguish, or happiness as if those emotions are her own.
Shapeshifting: Raven was granted the power to transform at will from human to raven form. She once used this ability to travel quickly and covertly to gather information for Ozpin. Though she now resents Ozpin for “what he did to her,” she still uses this ability often to keep tabs on the people she’s interested in.
Spring Maiden Powers: The original four maidens were each granted a portion of Ozpin’s immense magical abilities hundreds of years ago, and since then those powers have passed from each woman unto the person who was last in her thoughts. After killing the previous Spring Maiden, Raven acquired her powers, which have been shown to include several abilities: flight, manipulation of weather and the elements, and the creation of weapons from elemental substances such as fire and ice. These powers are significantly stronger than similar abilities granted by a Semblance and do not appear to be tied to Aura.
- Warp: Unlike in the series, Raven will feel weak and exhausted after a short time of using these powers, and their scope will be limited (e.g. weather effects in only a small area). She will also begin to feel the effects of the elements, for example: a flame sword will burn her hands, using ice will make her feel cold.

Inventory:

Omen (Raven’s katana-like sword, with a rotating chamber of interchangeable elemental blades)
Grimm mask

Writing Samples:
https://soddersays.dreamwidth.org/52279.html?thread=16779063#cmt16779063 (TDM w/ multiple threads)